Lagrangian modeling of air pollution from diesel generators installed inside Beirut city.

Abstract

Urban areas with high population density are linked with hotspots of air pollution. Since many developing cities do not have enough distributed Air Quality Monitoring Networks (AQMN), air quality modeling becomes an alternative solution to get the pollution map. However, most air quality modeling studies are done at a low spatial resolution and do not capture the intra-urban variability of pollution which makes it difficult for the epidemiological studies to interpret health-related dataset. Therefore, a good air quality modeling will desire reaching the few meter scale resolution taking into account the urban forms of street canyons and the topographic information. Characterized by an unregulated diesel generators sector, Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon, has witnessed increased pollution events. This study presents for the first time the Beirut pollution map at a 5-m resolution for the installed diesel generators in the city and analyzes the dynamic effects of the stacks location, buildings structure, topography, and atmospheric stability classes on the plume dispersion.